Retrofit for Control and Repairability of Damage

Abstract

Collapse or severe damage of a large number of bridges in recent earthquakes in California and Japan has emphasized the need to develop a suitable retrofitting technique for enhancing the flexural ductility and shear resistance of existing bridge columns. However, most retrofit techniques currently in vogue are essentially one-time fixes that do not address the issue of repairability following a seismic event. This paper reports the results of a research program investigating the performance of reinforced concrete bridge columns where the main objective is to control damage and ensure fast rehabilitation with minimum disruption to the traffic flow. Thus a retrofit for control and repairability of damage (ReCARD) philosophy is developed and validated through experiments on near full-size bridge columns.